Kuragehime 5 – Dressing for Battle

Haha, I like that Mayaya instinctively knows all these fashionable poses after putting on those clothes. But Nicole Richie? Really? Kuranosuke couldn’t have chosen a better socialite model for Mayaya? I would feel insulted. Or maybe they have a different view of Nicole Richie in Japan than we do in America. In that case, I would feel bad for the Japanese.

Anyway, I approved of the Nuns actually going out and doing something in this episode after being so lazy and easygoing in the previous one. . . . Well, I guess I should say trying to do something, since they failed so miserably here, but trying and failing is better than doing nothing, since you can always learn from your mistakes if you try and fail. And the mistake here is a mistake of preparation. Not just in looks (although, looking at it realistically, Kuranosuke is of course correct — you have to make people stand up and notice you, and not give ‘em a chance to discriminate based on appearance), but also in argument, I’d expect. (But maybe that’s just me discriminating based upon looks!)

Even if the Nuns had been able to overcome their social anxieties for the redevelopment meeting, what would they have been able to say? Cynically, I suppose their best argument would have been an appeal to emotion because, as is mentioned, many people are inherently against redevelopment projects (nobody likes change, git off our land, etc.), and it would have been really easy to paint the redevelopers as evil people who just want to boot some poor girls on their asses while their home is bulldozed and made into a hotel. (I guess it also helps that the person in charge of selling the redevelopment project is completely cynical and unsympathetic lol.)

But the biggest hurdle of course is that Chieko’s mom actually wants to sell the place. (Which nicely answers my question about how the project could actually get started in the first place. Thanks, Kuragehime!) Damaging the popularity of the project might help with that though. Would there be a point where the project becomes so unpopular that it would be a disadvantage for the company to pour money into redevelopment? Might help if Chieko were to somehow acquire and officially take over the building. If this were Hollywood, I would bet my life savings on that happening. As it is here, I definitely wouldn’t rule it out.

Last hurdle is the support of the Diet. I do appreciate the relative complexity of how this element is being handled — Shuu is on the fence, though he is leaning toward redevelopment, but he has political realities to think about. One wrong political move, and boom! They’re out on their asses. (I lol’d at Shuu’s dad advising Shuu to stay away from specifics at all costs.) Kuragehime can even make cynicism fun and sparkly. I’m amazed.

Right now I’m bracing myself for SHUU DECIDES TO OPPOSE REDEVELOPMENT BECAUSE OF HIS BONER HE LOVES TSUKIMI SO VERY MUCH, but given how solidly everything else has been handled in the series thus far, I do have faith that everything will work out in a more interesting way than that. I mean, the show has turned around the She’s All That-style stuff fairly quickly and approached it from a decent angle. That is almost a miracle in and of itself.

Also, anime has officially gone further in its quest to turn me into a woman, because I actually find myself kind of curious how the rest of the Nuns will look after their Kuranosuke makeovers. What is happening to me?!

I’m a little bit disappointed that Bamba was tackled simply by using a wig, but I suppose there was no realistic way of tackling that afro beyond getting rid of it altogether. But still, a wig is boring. Get Bamba to a hairdressers and shorten that monster

There’s nothing a good anti-frizz and a flat iron won’t do for that afro. Kuranosuke doesn’t know any better because his hair is nice and straight.

Considering how superficial Shuu is right now, I wouldn’t be surprised if he swayed to oppose the redevelopment when chic-Tsukimi shows up. Until then it seems like the pro-redevelopment lady’s got him wrapped around her pinkie.

…Or maybe Shuu’s actually a womanizer and both women are falling in line to his grand plan…

I don’t know that Shuu is completely under her spell yet. Haven’t really seen enough of them together; really, she doesn’t even seem to be Shuu’s type. After falling so hard for Yamato Nadeshiko!Tsukimi, he’s suddenly going to run off with the sexpot vixen? Maybe if Shuu were older or more powerful.